California Land Reuse and Revitalization Act of 2004

The California Land Reuse and Revitalization Act of 2004 (Health and Safety Code Chapter 6.82 and 6.83), effective January 1, 2005, provides liability protections to bona fide purchasers, innocent landowners and contiguous property owners which are intended to promote the cleanup and redevelopment of blighted contaminated properties. The bill establishes a process for eligible property owners to obtain the immunities, conduct a site assessment and implement a response action, if necessary, to ensure that the property is ready for reuse. The bill has been extended to include prospective purchasers and bona fide ground tenants (with a lease term of at least 25 years).

The sunset date for the original CLRRA bill, Assembly Bill 389, was set to expire in 2010.  Senate Bill 143 extends the repeal date to January 1, 2017. This bill also authorizes a prospective purchaser who is in contract to acquire a site and who qualifies as a bona fide purchaser to enter into a CLRRA Agreement. The qualified bona fide prospective purchaser who enters into an agreement will receive immunity upon site acquisition. Another senate bill, Senate Bill 989, outlined provisions for a bona fide ground tenant. Most recently, Senate Bill 820, Hertzberg, was approved by the Governor on August 22, 2016. It extended the repeal date of CLRRA to January 1, 2027, and provides that a person who qualifies for immunity under the act before January 1, 2027, shall continue to have the immunity on and after January 1, 2027, if the person continues to be in compliance with the requirements of the former act. One of the eligibility requirements for this program is that All Appropriate Inquiries (AAI) be conducted in compliance with the Final Rule at 40 CFR Part 312 and ASTM E1527-05. For more information on the DTSC process for evaluation of AAI, refer to the EPA All Appropriate Inquiries Rule:  Reporting Requirements Checklist for Assessment Grant Recipients. DTSC boilerplate documents have been developed in order to make the agreement and implementation process more predictable and expeditious. DTSC recognizes that property owner and site specific issues may necessitate minor modification to the boilerplate documents listed below.

• DTSC CLRRA Application (last few pages of Request for Lead Agency Oversight Application)
• DTSC CLRRA Agreement Boilerplate
• DTSC CLRRA O&M Agreement Boilerplate
• DTSC CLRRA Process Diagram Boilerplate
• CLRRA FAQs

For more information on bona fide prospective purchaser or bona fide ground tenant agreements, please contact your local Brownfields coordinator.